Support

Contact us at support@financialsoftworks.com.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Contacts

Can I send invoices to my clients via email?

Yes, DashBook makes it easy to email any report, and will in fact, automatically fill in your client’s email address if you have entered it.

What if my customer has multiple addresses?

DashBook allows an unlimited number of addresses and other ways to contact your customers, vendors, etc.

Exporting

Can DashBook export information to my accounting program?

DashBook contains a very powerful report writer, that allows you to customize its output to fit your needs. Please contact us with any specific export requests, and we will be happy to assist you.

General

How can DashBook help me analyze my business?

In addition to many standard reports and the ability to create your own reports, DashBook comes with the dashboard pre-loaded with helpful business indicators including a collectables aging report, a best seller chart, and an inventory level chart.

Can DashBook replace QuickBooks or another accounting program?

No, DashBook does not have the facility to track all of your business expenses. DashBook specializes in the specifics to publishing, such as royalty calculations, which QuickBooks and others do not handle well.

Installation

I tried to install DashBook, but the install program just stops.

While running Setup.exe, the installation for DashBook will check to see if your computer needs certain components for Windows. These components are downloaded as needed from www.dashbook.com. However the Windows Firewall can cause the installation to stall while attempting to download these files.

Solution: Close any open programs. From the Start Menu, choose Control Panel, and then choose Windows Firewall. On the General tab, select Off, and then choose OK. Run the DashBook setup.exe. After DashBook is installed, return to the General tab in the Windows Firewall and select On.

Orders

I am trying to enter an Order, but I cannot edit the price.

DashBook does not allow directly editing the retail price on individual orders, as that would make your tracking difficult in the future. You need to enter the retail price on the Product screen, and if you wish to have something different on this order, you can choose to enter a discount percent, or directly override the net price.

While on a screen like Orders, I see that a lot of report hyperlinks are grayed out, so that I cannot choose them.

Once you begin editing information, most reports become unavailable until you either apply your changes or cancel them, so that there is no misunderstanding as the report data represents the information stored in the database on disk.

Does DashBook handle backorders?

Yes, during an Order entry, you may elect to use the Advanced order features so that you can specify detailed shipping instructions, such as the number of units backordered. These orders will then remain unfulfilled, so you can readily complete them when your stock arrives.

Can Dashbook handle consignment sales?

Yes. Set up the consignment location as a warehouse. Use the Inventory tab on the Products window to transfer inventory from the current warehouse to the consignment location. When you are ready to invoice for the consigned inventory, create an advanced order for the inventory, shipping from the consignment warehouse. If you wish to send documentation with the initial consignment, use a ProForma order.

Products

I have a book that has been revised.  How should I handle that?

A book revision requires a separate ISBN, so you would create a new product in DashBook for this revised edition. You will need to create a new royalty agreement for this new book, and if your royalty contract required quantity breakpoints across all editions, you may need to use the number of units sold of the previous edition as an entry into your breakpoint table of the new edition.

On the Product screen, I see Default Warehouse.  How is that used?

DashBook keeps track of your inventory, which may be in multiple locations. The default warehouse that you choose is the location that DashBook will pre-fill as the location to reduce stock upon an order’s shipping, as well as the location to pre-fill for increasing stock during a return that is not explicitly associated with an order. During either of these operations, you may choose a different warehouse. If you are using a simple order, you will need to change to advanced to use a location other than the default warehouse.

Can DashBook handle 13 digit ISBNs?

Yes, you may use either 10 or 13 digit ISBNs in DashBook. In fact, as you enter your products in DashBook’s Product screen, you can simply enter the ISBN and have DashBook fetch the title and author information from the internet.

Is DashBook appropriate for a publisher with my number of titles?

DashBook can readily handle one to thousands of book titles, so that in itself is not a limitation. Where one should consider a more expensive program than DashBook is if the number of transactions you deal with requires automatic electronic communication with your distributor, as that ability is not yet in DashBook. Entering individual orders manually into DashBook is easy, but you may choose to enter them as bulk orders. For instance, if your distributor sends you daily sales reports, you may choose to enter them as they occur, or as a single order at the end of your royalty accounting period.

Reports

My screen shows “This report is not available.”  Why is this?

When you first begin to use DashBook, there is insufficient product sales information to generate these reports. Once you have entered products and begin sales, you will see these helpful tables and charts.

Can I customize my invoice report?

Definitely. DashBook includes a powerful report writer, and the standard invoice report will automatically use your logo that you reference in the publisher setup.

Will DashBook help me with my mailing campaigns?

Yes, DashBook can print your mailing labels, and you can add fields to your customer database indicating whether you have sent this customer a particular piece, or whether the customer has contacted you because of a particular campaign.

Royalties

Does DashBook allow more than one author to receive royalties on a book?

DashBook allows for an unlimited number of authors per book, and each author can receive a different deal. You can even have an author with more than one royalty arrangement for a single book, such as receiving royalty for the book cover artwork at a fixed price per book while also receiving a royalty percentage for contributing to the written work. See Royalty Agreements.

How does DashBook calculate royalty payments?

The current version of DashBook does not collect holdback information to recommend royalty payments, but it does track all of the royalty amounts as they accrue across all titles (and reduces this amount upon returns), and provides you with the total amount of royalty accrued that has not been paid, so you may determine how much to pay.

System

Can DashBook run on a Macintosh or Linux computer?

DashBook is a Windows program and can be run on any computer that either boots into Windows or uses a sufficiently capable Windows emulator. A native Macintosh version or Linux version of DashBook is not available.

Is the data I enter in DashBook locked into a proprietary database?

No, DashBook uses an open database, and all information can be exported with the built-in report writer.

My internet firewall program (McAfee, Norton, etc.) complains when I run DashBook.  What is going on?

When DashBook is installed, it is configured to automatically check the internet for program updates. Please direct your firewall program to grant access, so that DashBook is kept up to date. Alternatively, you may desire that DashBook not check automatically. You can set checking to be manual-only by choosing the menus Help, and then Updates.

Taxes

Does DashBook handle VAT payments and reimbursements?

DashBook has a sales category in which you can define sales tax rates by area, and DashBook will maintain and report on all sales tax charged by time. When you make additions to product inventory, you may specify the VAT paid using an additional Cost Category that you create, and refer to that information to calculate your VAT reduction.